Twitter and Canadian Education – The danger, and benefits, to developing Top 10 lists

Shortly after posting my Education Canada article, Twitter and Canadian Educators, the Edutweeps zeroed in on my original list of influential EduTweeters – ten educators who could serve as a starting reference point for educators dipping their toes into the Twitterverse. My criteria for inclusion was no more scientific than giving a ‘shout out’ to some of the best Canadian education social media thinkers that I had been exposed to, and who had a significant number of followers. I thought I had ‘covered my assets’ by including the word “Some” before “influential EduTweeters” as a title for this list, because I knew that I couldn’t have possibly discovered everyone that should have been mentioned. I even included an expanded list of 30 names and asked readers to let me know who was missing from this list.

I inadvertently excluded many passionate educators. And that’s the danger of making lists – lists by nature exclude, and readers weren’t shy to question my significant oversights.

I’m sure that there must be more top EduTweeters in Alberta, the Prairies, and the Maritimes, and dare I ask for you to recommend to us some that we’ve overlooked?

So based on all of this constructive feedback, our Top-50 list includes 21 Ontario-based EduTweeters, 12 from B.C., 17 women, and eight francophones. I suspect this list will continue to evolve as the number of educators joining the Twitterverse continues to grow. I’m sure that there must be more top EduTweeters in Alberta, the Prairies, and the Maritimes, and dare I ask for you to recommend to us some that we’ve overlooked? We could easily expand this list to the Top 100 and probably will with your help in order to further heighten awareness of some of this country’s most dynamic and innovative thinkers in education. So despite the danger of developing lists, good things can happen when you don’t proceed with caution.